The Fascinating World of

Fluid Modeling

from blood flow to the Antarctic ocean

Fluid simulation on youtube

Mechanical Engineering in Rostock

Seal-whiskers sensing

• seals detect tiny water disturbances with their whiskers
• special shape prevents whiskers from swinging in strong currents

Simulation of blood flow through coronary stents

• 47 000 implantations per year in Australia (1.8 million in US)
• side effects include enhanced tissue growth (restenosis)

• smooth blood flow can reduce restenosis risk
• modeling helps to develop perfect stent design

Surfing in my mind

Surfing in Rostock

Simulation of turbidity currents

• underwater avalanche
• up to 60 miles/h (100 km/h) and 600 miles distance
• destroys pipelines and deposits sediments

• models are a powerful tool to study turbidity currents

First contact

Simulation of propeller casting

• one piece 130 tons cast
• air entrainment and shrinking is a problem

• simulations reduce development costs
• includes heat flow and phase change

www.findaphd.com

"Tidal melting of Antarctic Ice Shelves since the Last Glacial Maximum"

Prof. Matt King

Dr. Ben Galton-Fenzi

Dr. David Gwyther

Partner Tina

Tasmania

Ocean modeling and Antarctica?

We use ocean models to understand and quantify melting at Antarctica's margins

Important for predictions of sea level rise and global climate

Ice shelf melting and sea level rise

Ice shelf melting and sea level rise

• Ice shelves are floating extensions of the grounded ice sheet
• Ice shelves buttress (kork) ice sheet discharge

Ice shelf

• Ocean melting can reduce ice shelf buttressing

Ice shelf melting and global climate

Ice shelf melting and global climate

• glacial meltwater freshens and cools surrounding oceans
• consequences for global oceans, climate and biology

Observations of ice shelf melting

• ice shelf melting can be inferred from satellite observations
• approach has several uncertainties

Alternative: ocean modeling

• ocean-ice shelf models can provide independent estimates
• current Antarctic-wide models lacks important physics

Model development

... also model development

Antarctic Tidal Ocean Model

Results

• confirms: deep warm water intrusions control large differences in ice shelf melting

Results

• melting by summer surface waters also matters
• processes involved need to be considered in future predictions  

Whats next?

• Effects of tides
• ice shelf melting 20 000 years ago

ICECAP? Totten project?

• ocean modeling = data scientist
• e.g. bathymetry and ice shelf geometry used in ocean models

Thank you!

Velocity

Temperature

Salinity

Ice shelf melting!

Windstress

Solar radiation

Precipitation

How does it work?

Pressure

Pressure

velocity

Shear stress

For each cuboid: formulate equations of motion and state

Gravity

Discretize in time and space

Solve equations on a big computer

Magic Box